Customer Reviews

Profile of the Last Puritan: Jonathan Edwards, Self-Love, and the Dawn of the Beatific (American Academy of Religion Academy Series)

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This is an outstanding presentation of a little-known aspect of Edwards's thought -his views on self-love. I benefited a lot from Brand's book in writing on the same topic for a theological journal. It's too bad that this book is not well-known among Edwards scholars. That may be because Brand is very critical of the prejudiced scholarship that dominates the field and seriously distorts interpretation of Edwards. Edwards's treatment of the issue of self-love is much more profound and insightful than the sort of thing psychotherapists have been writing for a long time, most of which has been debunked by research. He shows how self-love can be natural self-concern, social concern for people connected with oneself, or sinful, exclusive self-absorption, a result of the fall. Finally, in the redeemed person, it can also be a healthy respect for oneself as a creature of God destined to praise him for eternity. Edwards's thoughts on self-love expose the shallowness and self-interest involved in most modern notions about morality as well as the narcissism at the root of human depravity. Edwards's perspective points away from narrowly-focused religious and ethical behavior and toward broader ethical concerns flowing from a transcendent love for God himself. His analysis also shows that it is misleading to think of self-image in terms of a simple choice between self-esteem and self-hatred. Thanks to divine grace and the work of Christ, human psychology is compatible with both a sense of dignity and voluntary self-abasement as a sinner before God.